1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character and symbol pattern generator, and more particularly to a character and symbol pattern generator which is applied to electronic information processing equipment such as a word processor, a computer, an electronic notebook and the like and generates character and symbol patterns based on skeleton data for forming the skeleton of characters and symbols.
2) Description of the Related Art
A method for consecutively storing a plurality of point coordinates on the outline of a character, interpolating each point by straight lines or curves to obtain outlines so that character patterns having outline font are generated has conventionally been used.
However, data volume for a character increases if the point coordinates of the outline for forming the character pattern are consecutively present. For this reason, the memory capacity for storing the point coordinates of the outline considerably increases, thereby decreasing the processing speed at which the character patterns are generated.
According to the prior art which solves these problems, the following method and apparatus have been known.
For example, a pattern generating system has been proposed wherein center coordinates and information about a thickness (width) up to an outline and an angle are present for each point which constitutes a skeleton of a stroke, so that the outline points are calculated to generate the outline (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 3(1991)-21991).
Also, a character outline generating method has been proposed wherein each point constituting a skeleton of a stroke has information about a skeleton line and a thickness up to an outline, and the start and end points of the stroke have information about an angle formed between the outline direction and the thickness direction to generate the outline (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 63(1988)-217394).
A character pattern generator has been proposed wherein each point which constitutes a skeleton has information about the position and the thickness up to the outline to generate the outline (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 59(1984)-210482). Furthermore, a character generating device for thickly/thinly processing each outline width for forming outline font (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 7(1995)-191657), and a character pattern generating method and device therefor for reducing the time for drawing each outline width for forming outline font (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 7(1995)-178963) have been known.
According to the prior art disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. HEI 3(1991)-21991, SHO 63(1988)-217394 and SHO 59(1984)-210482, outline data representing outlines are generated from the skeleton data, the thickness data and the angle data so that data volume for generating character patterns is reduced. In the above methods and apparatus, the thickness data and the angle data are retained for every skeleton point in a stroke to obtain an outline point corresponding to each skeleton point. For this reason, there is a problem that the data volume is not fully reduced when generating character patterns with outline font. Furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. HEI 7(1995)-191657 and HEI 7(1995)-178963 have not disclosed the reduction of data volume to generate characters with outline font.